Leonardo Fioravanti claims his ticket for Paris 2024 and dreams of a medal in Tahiti

Leonardo Fioravanti has qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The surfer from Rome made it as far as the round of 16 of the Corona Open J-Bay, in Jeffreys Bay, South Africa, the ninth stage of the World Surf League Championship Tour. He was narrowly defeated by Australian Jack Robinson (14.00 to 13.54) but accrued enough points for his second Olympic experience following his first outing when he took the place of the injured Jordy Smith in Tokyo 2020.

With only the tenth stage of the Tour, scheduled for August in Teahupoʻo, French Polynesia, the same venue of the 2024 Olympic Games and then the finals in September in California, Fioravanti (photo ANSA) occupies ninth place in the rankings, but for the Olympic qualification he is virtually seventh because ahead of him are four Brazilian surfers, only the top two of whom will gain the right to compete at the Games. With ten individual passes up for grabs, the Roman is thus already certain of being able to fly to Tahiti.

For Fioravanti, this will be his second Olympics, after his debut in Tokyo 2020, the surfing discipline’s maiden appearance at the Olympic Games. In Japan, Fioravanti took the place of South African Smith and was then eliminated in the third round – the round of 16 – by Peruvian Lucca Mesinas. On this occasion he fully deserved the trip to Tahiti: he will have a year to prepare for the competition and seek a historic result for the Italian Waterski and Wakeboard Federation led by commissioner Carlo Mornati, CONI secretary general and head of mission of the Italia Team at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.